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As I'm home visiting my folks I thought I would do a 4WD day trip of the area I roamed around in my younger days. A couple of us used to ride our dirt bikes up the river road to Araluen and we'd stop with friends and devour the peaches grown there. Sadly, Woollies and Coles have seen the end of the viability of growing fruit there now.

From Moruya, we drove up the Clyde Mountain via the highway to Braidwood where we stopped for lunch at the bakery. Well worth the stop if you ever travel that way. Years ago you could fire a gun down its main street and not hit anyone but these days it's a hive of activity. There is antique stores, old buildings and wares to look at.

Historical photo of main street of Braidwood

Southern Cross landing in Braidwood

From Braidwood, we drove south to Deua NP to see 'The Big Hole' at Berlang Camp Ground. The walk is about 4 km and mostly uphill. Another geological feature 13 km further along the track is The Marble Arch. The distance to it and time constraints saw us 'chicken out' of seeing it.

From here, we drove back towards Braidwood turning east towards Majors Creek. We stopped at the hotel Elrington in Majors Creek for a beer. Majors Creek is a gold mining settlement named after Major Elrington.

After a couple of beers (the pub meals looked good with generous servings) and a yak to some locals, we drove south on a dirt track down the mountain to Araluen. There, a friend travelling with me, dropped in on her Aunt Mary for a chat before we took the dirt road, Aralen Rd, (not suitable for caravans or large vehicles) back to Moruya.

Map of area - thanks HEMA

Araluen Valley Hotel,- courtesy Visit Braidwood

Last edited by AnnieL on Mon Feb 12, 2018 3:29 pm; edited 6 times in total (Reason for editing : updating)

Does the Araluen Hotel still have the big set of gold scales behind the bar ? I have a book The History Of Araluen by Lindsay and Rodger Thwaites . I camped out at Belang , went to the Big Hole and on down to Marble Arch . I don't think I could get down to Marble Arch and back these days . I spent a fair bit of time around Braidwood and Mongarlow looking for gold .

It the good old days there were 28 hotels in Araluen .

" Crossing the creek " is the head waters of the Shoalhaven River .

Last edited by Minermike on Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:46 pm; edited 2 times in total (Reason for editing : more info .)

I spend a bit of time in these areas and love the history. We've met families who've been in area, some in the same homes, since the 1820s.

Had to smile at the Elrington pub sign (I've not been in the bar yet) at the "No Irish" sign. Lots of Irish were in the area over many years. Irish Corner was a "major intersection" of people travelling to Araluen from the north. Presumably a few of them also ventured across to Elrington.

The Braidwood bakery does a roaring trade (we stop there quite a bit) and there some other places not as popular but also serve up good quality and value food.

It was a delight to read the posts on this topic and although I do not send many posts and I haven't been swingin for more'n a year I found this post informative with great snaps, which defy the lacklustre comments of this forum in another post....noyungan